‘Train better, master basics, be patient, be angry, be crazy’: Alpine skiing’s veteran stars lift lid on sustained success
May 08, 2025·Alpine Skiing
More than half of all the Audi FIS World Cup races last season were won by athletes aged 30 or over.
It is quite a statistic.
But delve deeper and the value of miles in the legs, and perhaps the head, becomes even more startingly clear; 29 of the 34 women’s World Cups were claimed by skiers past their 30th birthdays. More than 85%.
Alpine skiing may be one of the fastest, wildest, most edge-of-your-seat sports on the planet – values often associated with youth – but it turns out experience has a mighty role to play.
Here, four of those defying the next generation reveal just how they are all doing it.
Testing limits
“I am getting better and better by the year, so that’s really fun,” a smiling 32-year-old Sara Hector (SWE/Head) said at the end of a season in which she not only recorded best ever result in the Overall Crystal Globe standings but also won twice and had her career best Slalom finish.
Hector is, of course, not alone. The woman who won five World Cup Giant Slalom races to Hector’s two, set the bar.
Federica Brignone (ITA/Rossignol), who will be 35 in July, became the oldest Downhill, Super G and GS World Cup winner last season, and in the process, she became the Overall, Downhill and GS champion. The Italian also extended her record as her nation’s most successful female World Cup skier, a mark made all the more inspiring by the fact 22 of her 37 World Cup wins have come since she turned 30.
Just behind her in the Overall Globe race came 34-year-old Lara Gut-Behrami (SUI/Head), a three-time winner during the season.
And then, of course, there was Lindsey Vonn (USA/Head). At the age of 40, the returning superstar netted two top six finishes in January before becoming the oldest skier to feature on a World Cup podium - by six years - when second in the Super G at the World Cup Finals.
While talent, health and dedication are must-haves to secure such sustained success, there are other helpful factors, some of which only come with age, according to Hector.
“It took me a long time to learn from my mistakes,” the reigning Olympic GS champion said. “I have tested my limits in a lot of ways and now I know how it feels to be training too much. I know if I am training too little what it feels like. I know what I need.
“I am really trying to use every run I can to get the maximum out. I found a better balance, how to be in better shape, especially for races.”
Learning patience
Understanding how to deal with disappointment is another key skill Hector – and no doubt many of her peers – has picked up as time has passed.
“I got a really good tip from one of the oldest and most experienced coaches I ever had, he said ‘patience is the road to success’,” Hector added.
“This year when I had a little tough time, I wrote it on my door to remind myself. These tough moments it’s really important to find a lesson rather than digging a hole and losing confidence.
“Sometimes you just want the results right now and it’s easy to feel you are getting older and you are getting stressed because you don’t reach the results you want.”
Dealing with hardship
Not that experience is all that matters. Indeed the 30-year-old Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR/Van Deer) is adamant after 13 years on tour that “the best skiers are the best skiers”.
For the man recently crowned Slalom World Cup champion for the fourth time, there are other non-negotiables.
“One is that you have to train more than everybody else and better than everybody else. And two, don’t try to be cool when you are skiing, try to do the right things,” the Norwegian said.
“What all the best athletes do better than others in all sports is the basics.”
While the youngsters snatched a lot more of the glory in the men’s World Cup races last season, Kristoffersen is still one of five men over 30 who between them claimed more than 20% of the wins.
Second Overall and second in the GS standings, Kristoffersen believes any success comes with a price, one that expands exponentially.
“You have to be crazy. You have to be insane,” he said. “We are all different. Some have it easier, some have it harder. I can’t talk for everyone but I hate race days, to be honest. It’s so exhausting because I have to work so hard in my head with everything.
“To do good for one season, two season, three, four five is one thing but now I have been pretty much fighting for podiums and wins over a period of 10, 11 years. It takes its toll mentally.”
Finding the fun
Thomas Tummler (SUI/Stöckli) has been on tour even longer than Kristoffersen and for the 35-year-old his late-blooming success has come about because of an ever-increasing smile.
One of the few rivals older than Tumler agrees that a smile helps more than a frown.
“When I was young, I was more angry with myself. When I was not skiing well, I was pushing myself every day, really hard. Now it’s a bit more calm, you use the focus you need,” said the 36-year-old Dominik Paris (ITA/Nordica), who claimed his 23rd and 24th World Cup victories in the closing stages of last season.
But for the man who will next season attempt to become the oldest ever Olympic speed champion on his home track in Bormio, it cannot all be giggles.
“It is still here, I am still angry when I am not skiing well. That makes it fun.”
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